Installing Windows Vista Home Basic on a 64bit machine

Hi

I have a new system with 64bit dual core processor. When I first installed
vista home basic, I vaguely recall choosing the 32bit installation (but I am
not sure). When I reinstalled, I was not asked whether which one I wanted to
install - 32 bit or 64 bit. I assume that the software sensed the existing
installation (32 bit) and reinstalled the same. I have the following
questions:

1 Does Vista Home Basic give the choice between 32bit and 64bit installation
at all?
2 If there is the choice to install the 64bit version, should I now just
FORMAT the hard disk and reinstall?
3 Will it offer me the choice between the installations?
4 By choosing the 32bit installation on a 64bit machine, am I losing out in
terms of processing power or in any other way?

I am not much of a professional, so please please answer at the end-user
level and not the tech level:-))

Thanks in advance
S

Vista Home Basic is only available in a 32-bit version.
There is really very little performance difference between
a 32-bit version compared to a 64-bit version anyway.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

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"Seeking" <Seeking@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:AFA06EF7-4FB9-4C51-8E60-582863596D02@microsoft.com...
Hi

I have a new system with 64bit dual core processor. When I first installed
vista home basic, I vaguely recall choosing the 32bit installation (but I am
not sure). When I reinstalled, I was not asked whether which one I wanted to
install - 32 bit or 64 bit. I assume that the software sensed the existing
installation (32 bit) and reinstalled the same. I have the following
questions:

1 Does Vista Home Basic give the choice between 32bit and 64bit installation
at all?
2 If there is the choice to install the 64bit version, should I now just
FORMAT the hard disk and reinstall?
3 Will it offer me the choice between the installations?
4 By choosing the 32bit installation on a 64bit machine, am I losing out in
terms of processing power or in any other way?

I am not much of a professional, so please please answer at the end-user
level and not the tech level:-))

Thanks in advance
S